On Wednesday afternoon, we scored a spot in the best anchorage
for viewing Thursday morning's Orion space shot. We are on the southeast side of the NASA Causeway
Bridge, near the Kennedy Space Center (Cape Canaveral). Our anchorage has an unobstructed view, and is still protected on the north side
from wind and waves. We couldn’t believe we had it to ourselves. Of course,
anyone planning to join us here had to make it through the bridge by 3:30.
Between 3:30 and 5:00, the bridge stays closed so workers can use the road for their afternoon commute. By 5 it’s starting to get dark. We were fortunate to
make it through before 3:00. Other boats stayed on the north side of the bridge,
but the water was much rougher there, with yesterday’s northeast wind.
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| NASA Causeway Bridge – from the north side, with traffic stopped for us to pass through. |
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Going through the NASA Causeway Bridge at 2:52 PM.
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We are pretty far away, but we can see one red thing that we
think is the missile. It looks like a lipstick. There is also a building, with
a sparkling tower next to it. But they wouldn’t shoot off a rocket right next
to their building, would they? The rockets in the online videos all look a
little different, but I think that’s because they are different, they are not Orion. Well, it’s one or another of
those things on the horizon, and we’ll see which one when they start firing it
up.
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NASA Building is on the far left,
red “Lipstick” is in the middle,
barely visible.
Notice how much calmer the water is compared to the north side of the bridge.
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We woke up at 6:32 to see the 7:04 launch, which was first
delayed for wind. We’re not feeling any wind, but I think they meant wind very
high up in the atmosphere.
Then the launch was delayed for ONE BOAT in the eastern security
zone. Chuck had a look of terror in his eyes when he first heard that on the
radio! But we reminded ourselves, we are on the western side of NASA. And the Coast Guard is not here in this
anchorage, and they’d be here by now if it were us!! THE BOAT was in the ocean,
miles east of here.
Trying to make breakfast and watch the launch at the same
time, I was not too disappointed to hear that the launch was delayed, once
again, this time for technical problems with a valve. We made and finished
breakfast.
Then we finally learned that the launch was postponed until
tomorrow. Thought about what to do with our day, and then it started to rain.
So we decided to stay. Had a nice quiet day. We caught up on a few things. It
rained a few more times. (So that’s what “Scattered Showers” means?)
Looking forward to “Orion, Take 2” tomorrow morning.
12/5/14
We don’t have a working alarm clock. My watch alarm lost its
sound when I changed the battery, and the cell phones all needed to be
charged.
Woke up at 2 AM – too early.
Woke up at 5 AM – still too early.
We both bolted up suddenly at 7:06 AM to the sound of a loud,
low rumble. Orion!!! We got out of bed, rushed outside and it was gone! Just a
big cloud of white smoke was left, near the NASA building. Darn! The Orion rocket must have been on the other side of that
building, where we couldn’t see it.
The red lipstick is still there, sittin’
pretty on the horizon. We still don't know what that is!
We were glad to hear that the launch was considered
“perfect,” and the capsule landed perfectly in the Pacific Ocean near CA, after
orbiting the earth. Hope you were able to see it on the news!
Sandy & Chuck
on s/v Summer Wind
